Implementing an online English linguistics course during the Covid-19 emergency in Italy: Teacher’s and students’ perspectives

This contribution reports on the experience of converting a face-to-face undergraduate English linguistics course into e-learning during the Covid-19-related lockdown at the University of Bologna, Italy. It reports the teacher’s perspective and the students’ perceptions, collected via an ad hoc questionnaire. The study shows the importance of taking into account the learners’ perspective in assessing an online course, and confirms the importance of carefully planning the course. Even if the students’ feedback is mostly positive, probably the critical points emerging from the questionnaires are also a consequence of the rapid transition from a course created for face to-face teaching to the online mode at the onset of the health crisis. Data from the study also suggest that special attention should be paid to students who decide not to interact online, who risk being 'invisible', and that interactive lessons or less formal lessons are not necessarily perceived as more engaging. From this viewpoint, collaborative learning strategies fostering a sense of online community should be given due space. Overall, online teaching during the Covid-19 health crisis was a testing ground and a learning experience for teachers and students, and also one which should guide our reflection on these practices in the near future.